Posted on 01/29/2015 9:42:15 AM PST by SeekAndFind
“If that bothers you to the point that you’d say, ‘I’d never vote for you,’” he told an audience in Virginia, “then you’re never going to vote for me.” Oh, now. There are plenty of reasons never to vote for Huck without dragging the poor DREAM kids into this.
Lefty Greg Sargent says this is a big deal. Is it? I think it’s a “big deal” in the sense that righties who don’t like Huckabee now have another reason not to like him, but realistically, how many candidates in the nascent GOP field will be coming out hard against DREAM this year? C’mon.
“I don’t believe that it is a just thing to punish someone who had nothing to do with the breaking of the law,” Huckabee told a crowd hosted by the Family Foundation, a Christian advocacy group that lobbies the Virginia legislature. “What I want to do is see, what can we do to put that person in a position where they do abide by the law and become a citizen? I would like that person to become a very generous tax-paying citizen rather than somebody who is going to take taxes away from the rest of us.”…
As an example, Huckabee related the true story of one son of illegal immigrants who started in Arkansas schools as a child and went on to graduate from the state’s largest high school as the valedictorian.
“Does he get the scholarship and go on to college so that he can become perhaps a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, a teacher?” Huckabee said. “Or do we say, ‘No son, you’re as far as you can go. You need to pick tomatoes.’ ”
“I don’t know how in the world that we’re going to punish that kid for something he had no control over,” Huckabee added.
Reality check: Scott Walker, the buzziest GOP contender in America right now, supports a path to citizenship not just for DREAMers but for adult illegals too. Marco Rubio, the next buzziest guy, led the charge for a Senate bill which would have added a path to citizenship for adult illegals to federal law. Jeb Bush, the establishment frontrunner, preposterously pretends to oppose citizenship for adult illegals but does support citizenship for DREAMers. Even Mitt Romney, who famously proposed self-deportation as a remedy to illegal immigration in 2012, said at the time that he’d support DREAM for kids who enlisted in the military. (He also said that, rather than simply rescind Obama’s 2012 DACA amnesty for DREAMers, he’d replace it with his own solution.) I’m guessing that the new and improved “softer” Romney will extend his support to making all DREAMers eligible for citizenship soon enough. Rather than ask whether Huckabee can survive supporting citizenship for DREAMers, then, ask this question instead: How many of the 20-30 Republican alternatives running for president actually disagree with him? Maybe Ted Cruz will, but I wouldn’t even bet on that. Everyone running, even the stalwart tea partiers, will want to make some concession on immigration to hopefully blunt the Democrats’ edge with Latino voters in 2016. Cruz can come out strong against amnesty for adults; he might even come out against citizenship for DREAMers. (He’ll certainly come out against chain migration for DREAM families, as will most everyone else.) But is he willing to oppose any form of legalization for DREAMers, knowing full well that once legalization is granted, citizenship will eventually follow? As of last year, more than 60 percent of white evangelicals, a group for whom Huckabee and Cruz will be competing, supported allowing adult illegals to stay in the U.S. What happens to those numbers when you ask specifically about the more sympathetic class of DREAMers, kids who came here through no fault of their own? Again, c’mon.
Explain to me, then, how Huckabee ends up taking a beating for his position when it’ll be, at worst, the overwhelming consensus view of the field and, at best, a comparatively restrained approach when people like Walker and Rubio are up there making the case for citizenship for everyone. One of two things will happen with the citizenship issue in the primaries. Either it’ll blow up as a litmus test for the base, in which case it’ll consume Walker and Rubio before it reaches Huckabee, or the fact that strong candidates like Walker and Rubio are endorsing the idea will move the Overton window for the party as a whole and make citizenship for a smaller class of illegals, like DREAMers, a viable compromise position for 2016. My hunch is that the second reaction is more likely than the first. Whenever I half-jokingly suggest prospective GOP tickets on Twitter (Romney/Bush? Bolton/Carson?), one of the strongest responses I get is for a Walker/Rubio or Rubio/Walker ticket. A lot of people want at least one of those guys on the ballot, but both support citizenship for illegals; the cognitive dissonance involved in being an anti-amnesty conservative but liking one or both of them will be resolved, I’d bet, in favor of “well, I guess citizenship for DREAMers is okay so long as it’s just for DREAMers.” It won’t be just for DREAMers in the end, but that little lie we’ll tell ourselves will be good enough to keep Walker and Rubio viable.
“FWIW, I’m on record now of stating Cruz will support some amnesty plan.”
Thankfully, I’m not planning on voting for the Cruz in your imagination, I’m planning on voting for the actual man, who has consistently been against amnesty for illegals. If that changes, I’ll worry about it then.
I understand.
I may take a negative POV on this, but when it comes to Republicans - ANY Republican - I fully expect to be disappointed.
Like ObamaCare for instance. IF a Repub wins the White House and the Repubs keep control of the House and Senate - do you expect they will REPEAL ObamaCare?
I don’t either.
Elite ownership of Huck is complete.
” do you expect they will REPEAL ObamaCare?
I don’t either.”
If we don’t expect them to, then of course they won’t. So we have to not just expect it, but demand it.
RE: Your headline suggests that there is NO pathway to citizenship: If that is true how did these people become citizens of the USA?
They all came here legally and obeyed US immigration laws.
I don’t either.”
Or, I could be mistaken....
Republicans to open February with vote to repeal Obamacare
Washington Times ^ | January 29, 2015 | Tom Howell Jr.
Hucky is sucky.
Huckabee made a pretty good TV talks show host. But he would be disaster as POTUS. Why would anybody want to cater to these illegal aliens who in no way would improve our gene pool and are only a drag on the nation?
Something is wrong with Huckabee to feel that strongly about those who invade this country and show utter contempt for our laws. Why should illegal aliens get special perks and placed ahead of legal immigrants?
There are no good reasons for amnesty and plenty of reasons to opposed it. Amnesty would only bring more of them. It is the perfect way to destroy this country.
Huckabee could win Iowa and maybe some southern states on social issues. He won’t win the nomination.
Most of the GOP Congress will take token votes against the Dreamers because Obama’s DACA showed what happened with a permanent amnesty.
I don’t mind Huckabee and Todd Akin causing problems on gender issues. That’s not the main reason Romney or McCain lost.
Jeff Sessions, David Vitter and a few others in the south are more popular than Huckabee and oppose amnesty. There’s other reasons why Huckabee might win a few states and spoil.
Grassley and Steve King are way better on immigration than most of the GOP.
Why never a path back to where they came from?
Any candidate who has sold out to the left and the trans-national elites on the national question cannot be trusted not to sell us out on any other.
That leaves us with Senators Lee, Sessions, and former Senator Santorum.
Ditto!!!!
Any candidate that preaches “Pathway” & “Immigration Reform” is using double speak to push amnesty.
Huckster, Jebster, RomneyCare, Rubio, Walker, et al - they all push amnesty by one name or another.
Like you said, just follow than dang laws!
btw, ONLY Cruz has stated one MUST be in their home country to apply for citizenship - and not be living inside America.
Cruz 2106!!!
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